Ochirbatyn Dashbalbar
First Ode to Grass
Second Ode to Grass
Third Ode to Grass
OCHIRBATYN DASHBALBAR (1957-1999) was born in the former Mongolian People’s Republic. He is one of the most celebrated poets in contemporary Mongolian literature. His eclectic style, drawn from Mongolian praise songs and Buddhist didactic poetry, as well as Japanese haiku, American free verse, and Soviet meta-realism, belied his steadfast dedication to his primary subject matter: ecopoetic exaltations of his Dariganga homeland. His translator, JESSICA MADISON PÍSKATÁ, is a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the New School and served as a Teaching English as a Foreign Language Volunteer with the US Peace Corps in Mongolia.